kennydee

I've had problems with my Radio at our local flying field. I'm getting occasional glitches during flight. This is on two transmitters (JR 662 and JR 6102, channel 50 and 8 different receivers). It was so bad yesterday at the flying field that I parked everything. I've noticed the glitching is much worse on an overcast day and yesterday was an overcast day. My inexpensive recievers gave me the biggest problems but even my JR 700's were glitching, though not as bad. Other guys were having problems but no one was as bad as mine. There have also been days when I didn't have any problem and others did. Until I recently began flying at this field (I move a lot), glitching had been a minor problem and was usually caused by me (my set-up). There is a flying field about 4 to 5 miles away. I wonder, can RC radio signals skip on atmospheric conditions the way some other radio signals do? Could this be the reason the problem seems worse on cloudy days? How can I fly glitch free one outing and then have problems the next at the same field with the same equipment? I'll give an UNABASHED ATTABOY to anyone that can help.

E-Challenged

I just bought a Berg 6Ch receiver because of unexplicable glitching and crashing. The latest Berg and the FMA receivers have features that memorize your tranmitter signal and reject others even on the same frequency, they prevent servos thrashing during null signal conditions, and they can be programmed to set controls to a predetermined position when loss of signal occurs and then go instantly back to normal when signal is re-acquired. I can't vouch for all this personally, but people who have had problems like us have been very happy with these receivers. The FMA can also be used with an autopilot device to keep your plane level until it gets a clean signal. I am afraid to fly my larger and faster IC and electrics planes with standard receivers anymore.

Foamaholic

My Feedback: (1)

I will only buy Berg receivers any more. I love my FMA M-5 ones too.

kennydee

I appreciate the info guys, but you don't answer my question. Before I came to my current flying field, I had only occasional problems with my receivers. And none of those problems were bad enough to cause a crash. I suspect there is some kind of interference happening at this site. I also don't think it's a coincidence that it's always much worse on an overcast day. I'm not ready to go out and replace 8 receivers. I'm still wondering if RC signals can skip on atmospheric conditions the way some other radio signals can. Are there other types of signals that can overwhelm the RC signal and can those signals be increased or concentrated on overcast days?

jakjr

My Feedback: (18)

I dont know if signals from RC radios can do it, but some kinds of signals will bounce off the clouds and come back, they talked about it in my sceince class last year.

I guess it could happen, as long as the signal coming from the radio could reach the clouds with range to spare (IE plenty of signal strength hitting the clouds) but I dont think any have that kind of range.

Your interference may not be caused by others radios though, it could be from other RF emmiting things close to or possibly in the 72mghz band wihich is bouncing off the clouds.

GeneG

My Feedback: (11)

In the safety literature I have seen, they claim that RC signals can travel 3 Miles. On an overcast day any radio signal can experience atmospheric bounce. It seems absolutely possible that the two field are conflicting with each other.

kennydee

Thanks Mr. "G". I've also spoken with a couple of "Old-time" RC pilots that agree with you. I just don't believe it's my equipment, the problem is just too inconsistent and seems to happen mostly on overcast days.

bassmanh

My Feedback: (5)

kenny,
one of the esiest ways to check and see what IS really going on is to check your field with a scanner AND/OR have some one at the other flying field (with a cell phone to let you know)and see if anyone is flying on the same channels as you at the same time as you , then you will know for surewhat is going on.

at our filed we have a scanner that the club bought so we can tell what channels if any are giving us any trouble at any givin time. well i hope this helps and good luck.


bassman

Matt Kirsch

My Feedback: (21)

If your field is operated by an AMA club, they can contact your district's frequency coordinator and request the use of the district's frequency analyzer, rather than buy one. Hopefully you live in a district that has a frequency coordinator... Some don't for some reason.

Still, the solution is probably better equipment, regardless of the "why."

kennydee

As I understand it, a frequency analyzer was used when the field was first set up. That was a few years ago. I do plan to visit the other field and find out if anyone flies on a regular basis on my channel. As I have mentioned, I haven't had this much trouble anywhere else and I recently visited another field and flew without incident. I know I can buy more expensive digital receivers and I probably will do that when I have to replace some of my current receivers. Some of the members of my current flying field seem sensitive to the suggestion there might be interference (even though some of them have had problems). Since I'm moving soon, I'm not going to press the issue.

*Crash*Johnson*

My Feedback: (7)

Unless this glitch is happening to all the flyers and all the channels, wouldn't it be cheaper to replace the crystals? This way when you move you can use the old and you have a backup